India has witnessed more communal violence cases this year than the previous year, revealed the latest data culled by intelligence agencies.

Nine states reported increased number of incidents of communal violence. Uttar Pradesh topped the list with 457 communal incidents in 2019 between January 1 and October 30, as compared to 396 incidents last year during the same period.

The second state was Rajasthan (165 incidents this year, compared to 116 communal incidents last year), followed by West Bengal (79 incidents as compared to 57 last year), Gujarat (40 incidents against 26 last year), Assam (20 communal incidents against 17 such incidents last year), Kerala, Tripura, Delhi and Odisha (five incidents against none last year).

Commenting on the latest report on the communal violence in the country, A C Michael, former member of Delhi Minorities Commission, told Matters India, “It is really sad to note our country that is known for being the largest democracy in the world is today going through a phase of continuous communal violence.”

“I would like to blame the politicians for this menace as their vote-bank politics have pitted the citizens of India against each other based on religion,” said Michael, national coordinator of United Christian Forum.

“The present government has made no bones about their strategy of following majoritarian appeasement policy. Till the time the young generation which is being claimed to be on the ruling party side understands the politics of appeasement, I do not foresee any solution to this problem,” he added.